In Kenya, elementary (primary) education, calendar year starts in January and ends in November. The academic year is divided into a trimester system that divides the academic year into three terms of about 14 weeks each, the time during which an educational institution holds classes. April, August and December are usually school holidays.
I am informed that the parents brought their children back to school in the first week of May without weather difficulties. There was no rain during the first few days of May and this means travelling was easy from remote places to where the school is. There are few children who can walk from home to school but most of them can make it to school in one day. Often the opening day is on a Monday unless it falls on a public holiday. Monday however, is not the easiest day for parents; some of them may need someone to be at home with the rest of the children or may have more than one child to take to a school away from home.
On arrival at school parents are expected to have done a little shopping for essential items such as soaps, pencils, pens and copy books and such as their child may need during the three months they are going to be in school. Some children may need a new pair of shoes or uniform. There is also a visiting day after about seven weeks and parents will come to visit their children in school.
At school the teachers and other staff wait and welcome the children as they arrive back from holidays. They make sure the children report to the Head teacher’s office for registration which shows they are back, as well as parents who must report on their fees payment which is expected to be paid directly into the school account at a bank and then submit the payment receipt to the school. They may as well use this opportunity to discuss with the Head teacher or class teacher any report that may have been carried by their child’s report form. Learning and other school activities started well and are going on as expected.
Generally it is reported that children had good holidays, climate was good and no harsh drought or famine. There has been reasonable harvests of stable food and animals are healthy in most of the Country. This means that apart from ordinary ups and downs in life, people are generally happy with life and it is good to have children visit homes in this kind of atmosphere.
Teachers have reported that children have made good progress in the past few months and I have encouraged the teachers and other staff members to continue taking their duties seriously because that is why they are there with the children. There have been rains since the school resumed and common cold is unavoidable during such weather. Malaria can attack as well during such weather if there is a lot of stagnant water in the compound.
Two Sisters (nuns) who had been working in the school did not resume their duties when the school opened in early May. I have no information to share about this other than I communicated with their superior in April regarding having a contract between the school and her congregation regarding their services in school.
DEVELOPMENT: Friends of Fr. Ntaiyia Jubilee School Board of Directors (BOD) has had two meetings this year, to firstly write acknowledgement and ‘Thank You’ letters to our friends/ donors and secondly to deliberate on the ongoing and required development in the school using the donations we received in 2015, especially around Christmas time when in the spirit of no gift is too small our friends share season’s joy by a donation /gift to Fr. Ntaiyia School. We first and foremost sort out the donations that have been given for a specific purpose such as to pay school fees / tuition for needy children or buy learning materials such as text books in respect with the intention of the donor.
After designating the school fees money, we have bought new text books for 7th graders because they are a double class now. We have made 10 more desks each for 3 children, we have made 10 benches for use in the dining room and we have replaced part of an electricity cable to carry 3- phase power because our original one was for single phase as we were then using a generator. We have also bought 100 chairs and 24 tables for use in the Library and computer room with money left over from the dissolution of the cooperation that initially supported the building of the school.
CONSTRUCTIONS: Other ongoing development in Fr. Ntaiyia Jubilee School is relocating of the original two pit latrines one for girls and one for boys. This is because after construction of the Administration block and Library, the original latrines became far too near these buildings. The work involves excavation of a pit 3 by 6 feet to 22 feet deep and constructing the base, and walls subdividing the base to six lavatories. At the moment a new toilet for girls is ready and they are using it and excavation for construction of a new one for boys is going on now, hopefully will be ready by August.
The Board of Directors (BOD) has also discussed the construction of the stone perimeter wall project which covers about 1736 feet of which only 263 feet had been done last November while Fr. Symon was in Kenya. We are also considering purchasing essential tools for schools maintenance workshop.
This year we have a total of 267 children in school as indicated by the chart below. You will note that we have a double class seven meaning we shall have seventy-three (73) examination candidates in the year 2017. Our double class started three years ago when I felt we needed to have them in order to make use of the room we have in the Dormitories and two class rooms that are usually not used for learning because we do not have first and second graders which leaves us with two free class rooms in the school. First and second graders are far too small to be boarding in school.
| GRADE / CLASS | BOYS | GIRLS | |
| 3 | 13 | 8 | 21 |
| 4 | 22 | 30 | 52 |
| 5 | 21 | 21 | 42 |
| 6 | 25 | 23 | 48 |
| 7 West | 22 | 14 | 36 |
| 7 East | 22 | 15 | 37 |
| 8 | 19 | 12 | 31 |
| 144 | 123 | 267 |
I am because we are
Fr. Symon Ntaiyia